Tides
by delga
Summary: Ziva-centric drabble series from pilot onwards.
1. point of no return

**TIDES**

--

**notes: **A drabble series following Ziva from the show's beginning. I'm working on the idea that Ziva was a big part of Kate's story line whether Kate knew it or not. The show itself implies as much.

The title, _tides_, is a reference to the distance between Israel and the USA; the way life can change; and the difference between Ziva as she was, and Ziva as she is.

--

**point of no return.** (ncis)  
ari, ziva; jethro, kate  
_Ari comes in the dead of night_

written for _**ncisdrabble100**_, challenge 1 (yankee white). no copyright infringement intended.

--

Ari comes in the dead of night. He brings nothing with him but his intentions; takes nothing with him but her sleep. Ziva bolts upright in the bed and comes eye to eye with her brother. She does not scream.

He explains the job to her very slowly, as though she is a child. He does not whisper, only speaks lowly and precisely. He is firm. He is cold.

Ziva does not answer him; he leaves.

--

Worlds away, Jethro Gibbs offers Caitlin Todd a new job. Only later does it become clear that this is her point of no return.

**tbc.**


	2. you took the bones of me

**TIDES**

--

**you took the bones of me.** (ncis)  
ziva; ari; before the storm  
_it will be easy, Ari assures her_

written for _**ncisdrabble100**_, challenge 2 (december holidays). title from carbon leaf's _life less ordinary_. no copyright infringement intended.

--

_It will be easy,_ Ari assures her, _we will be back before Hannukah_, and then he laughs, low and dangerous, and Ziva shivers imperceptibly because she knows that tone, and she knows what it can mean.

She does what she is told.

Three days before they are due to leave - on separate planes, from separate airports, in separate countries - Ziva takes a day for herself. She disappears. Ari will be furious, but she slips away regardless.

At Tali's grave she thinks about the things she never lets herself think about, and she feels fear rattle through her bones.

**tbc.**


	3. cut off both our arms

**cut off both our arms and reach for nothing.** (ncis)  
ziva; eli david; phone call  
_Her father speaks to her only once before she leaves_

written for _**ncisdrabble100**_, challenge 3 (angst). title from page france's _spine_. no copyright infringement intended.

--

Her father speaks to her only once before she leaves. He sounds tired, old even. Something troubles him. She wonders if it is the same thing which keeps her awake each night. She wonders if he fears for her as she does him.

Do you remember, he asks, do you remember the house in Haifa? You were so young then. Do you recall?

Yes.

I wonder if it still stands? And that is all he says. She has not the heart to tell him that it is gone, and the garden too, and that the soil is sown with blood.

**tbc.**


	4. a prophesy of sand

**a prophesy of sand.** (ncis)  
ziva; a flight; a dream  
_the flight to America is uneventful_

written for _**ncisdrabble100**_, challenge 4 (new movie). no copyright infringement intended.

--

The flight to America is uneventful. She reads, she eats, she watches the in-flight entertainment. It is a new film, not one she recognises, but it is intriguing enough. Her eyes drift shut half-through; she sleeps.

She sleeps, she dreams. Such is the way of things.

She dreams of the desert, of a dust-ridden horizon, and a piercing sun. it is not a landscape she has encountered too often, but in the dream it is a second-skin, and she is scouring the earth for water. Her hands sink into the soil; it is dry.

She wakes thirsty, sore and raw.

**tbc.**


	5. this language of ours

**this language of ours.** (ncis)  
ziva; ari; reports  
_He reports to her weekly_

_written for __**ncisdrabble100**__, challenge 5 (sibling conversation). no copyright infringement intended._

_--_

He reports to her weekly, though never over the phone and never face to face. Ari is as careful as a barefoot man on red hot coals.

He is thorough, and playful too. Ziva reads both layers of his manuscripts: the record of his work verbatim, and his sly, brotherly commentary, be it in the flick of his consonants or the flat of his vowels. He makes her laugh; the laughter makes her forget her anxiety.

Then he speaks of Qassam and of the cell's plans, and she can no longer pretend that she's not completely out of her depth.

**tbc.**


	6. an exercise in breathing

**an exercise in breathing.** (ncis)  
ziva; (ari); silence  
_for three weeks no word_

_written for __**ncisdrabble100**__, challenge 6 (chocolate). no copyright infringement intended._

_--_

silence

for three weeks no word no contact and no no no she thinks no not anything (she can feel her father's disapproval even before she admits that ari is gone from her grip)

no phone calls nor dead drops nor messages tucked into the sleeves of books that he has read and she has never heard of nor fingerprints on glass or footprints in sand and she thinks for this you would break my fingers were the roles reversed

—then a bar of chocolate and still no words but three carefully placed crosses on the underside of the foil

**tbc.**


	7. the echo of birdsong

**the echo of birdsong.** (ncis)  
post-ep; kate; ziva  
_her ears are ringing_

_written for __**ncisdrabble100**__, challenge 7 (kate's thoughts at the end of 1x10, __left for dead__). no copyright infringement intended._

_--_

Her ears are ringing, and her mouth feels sore, and though the two things don't feel connected they probably are. _So stupid_, she thinks, _what must they think?_ and _Gibbs is never going to let me forget this._

She thinks: _I should have known sooner. I should have been faster._ I should, I should, I should.

The wind stirs around her ankles and the smoke from the explosion caresses her face. Her ears are ringing. Her mouth feels sore.

--

When Ziva hears of the explosion she panics momentarily before realising that not everything in this world is her brother's doing.

**tbc.**


End file.
